I replied to an ad on Craigslist that sounded good, but never listed a company name. What AIL does is blanket job postings under various titles and fields, but it all really boils down to sales. There is nothing wrong with sales or this job if you want to do sales, but me and a few others felt more than a little misled when it came to what we applied for and what the job actually entailed.
From the start:
I was first contacted by phone and told that the regional manager noticed my resume and would love to get me in for an interview immediately. When you get a call like this, it makes you want to jump to the opportunity, and makes it sound like a big deal. They asked a couple of questions over the phone that were very basic and told me they wanted me in as early as possible, which was the next morning.
I get there the next morning and I am greeted by a nice looking office, a very warm receptionist who remembers everyone's name and is overall very nice. The place seems like a family environment and everyone in the office will stress that to you at every opportunity.
In the interview, they keep saying at the beginning that it's "to see if you are a good fit for the company". They asked a little about myself personally and my background, but not really any tough questions. My interviewer then told me I sounded like a good fit; which struck me as surprising because the interview was 5 minutes or less total, and there was no talk of the position or responsibilities. This was the first red flag for me. Apparently, everyone in the office that morning was a "good fit" as I didn't see a single person who was not invited back for the competitive group interview, about 10-15 people total.
In the group interview, they brought in a guy who was really good at talking the opportunity up. AIL uses a phrase "opportunity unlimited" and they talk about is anecdotal stories of people who moved up really fast, or who were good sellers making 6 figures in the first year. They play up the money as much as possible, which was another red flag to me. Usually compensation is one of the very last things talked about it an interview process. If you ask a question like "what is the base salary?", they will tell you "it is whatever you want to make". They talk about "weekly bonuses" which I'm pretty sure are just the commissions you are making on sales. They play a pretty corny video that, to be brutally honest, looks like something you'd see on TV between 1-5AM. I'm pretty sure they do all of this to hide the fact that the job is a sales job with zero base salary and is totally commission based. I would have liked to know that before they brought me in talking about a different position; I felt duped.
They also stressed during this that there were several hundred applicants, over a hundred personal interviews, and that everyone in this room had, in a sense, "made it this far". I don't think that was the case at all. I think that if you even get a call, you are basically going to get this job as long as you have basic people skills. It's a numbers game.
After the group interview we were all left in the room, then they had multiple people coming in and out and asking for more one on one time with certain people. Every one of these people came out of offices with a folder that had the phrase "Opportunity Unlimited" on it. That folder basically means you made it to the next step, the fourth interview. After I was pulled aside and told that I was one of the people that really stood out in the group interview, I was given the same folder,
Within the packet, I found something really interesting as well. Under the heading compensation, it says that affiliates (salespeople) earn up to 50% of their personal sales, plus residuals (renewed policies). Managers earn up to 50% of what their direct affiliates earn. Regional managers earn up to 50% of what their managers earn... This was the biggest red flag for me ever and honestly sounds pretty scary. I feel it inappropriate to use the term that describes those monuments in Egypt, because I don't know for sure that's what this is. However, reading this set off all the alarm bells in my head and I knew with total certainty this was not for me.
Although this review seems overly harsh, this position would be great for someone who is a good seller and can rely on commissions for income. The reason I felt like it was a bait and switch was because the ads they put out list yearly salaries and different positions that don't say anything about sales. If you know this is sales and can sell, you definitely could be successful in this position.